Not sure why but I have not had as much energy for writing for my poor neglected blog. At the time of writing stranded in Fort Erie due to my sister getting the flu and a significant snowstorm. I don’t drive so I can not assist on getting us home!

It has been very busy with camera club, family and the holidays. Plus a few changes at work including one unexpected resignation. Still adjusting to not having a person whom I highly respected and was a great supporter of me no longer working with me. Tough it occurred just as I was goodbye to the President of our Canadian company, a man I knew for 14 plus years.

Everything changes in time just seems there have been a lot recently and more on the horizon. It is making me think and very restless. Time moves at a swift pace and approaching my second half of life is a scary thought. Never thought I would be single, no kids, and no real dates in eight years as I move closer to 40. Finances are pretty scary too, I try but need to try better on savings and retirement.

Trying to stay focused on my photography but it has been a bit of a struggle both for time and creativity. Camera club position entails administration work, emails and keeping lots of stuff organized. Fun but when you add leading workshops, outings and other extras it gets a bit crazy! Been a few challenges but trying to tough them out.

Newest hobby is trying to get back into film. Have managed to acquire a Canon AE-1 and a Konica. Have the Canon ready to go but not the Konica yet. Canon will be fun, it has a long range telephoto, a macro and a 50mm. A good selection of lens. Also have a variety of film mostly 400asa just to start. Hoping a group of club members who like the idea of “going retro” can meet up early in the new year.

Other than that need to stay focused on reaching a few goals in the New Year. I am not big on putting them in stone but will post the ones I manage to succeed at!

Change is like time never stopping. I am realizing as I get closer to turning 39 and realizing that 40 is far closer than I am comfortable with. Change is something that I have been thinking about a lot.

Much to my sister’s horror, decided to downsize to a single bed from a queen. It is a realization that I am very much single and with that not changing any time soon went with gaining more space in my room. This will allow me to add a desk for my computer which was recently upgraded due to my photography hobby. Sister is not sure if she is living beside a senior or a student. Laugh, will need to try to avoid both when finishing up the changes in my room.

Change is also coming to the publishing industry quickly. I have been working for my company for fourteen plus years and I know that things are beginning to shift. I have survived quite a few seismic changes at work, not sure what 2013 will bring but gut instinct says change is going to happen much faster. In my opinion, the moment the publishing world tipped was when Steve Jobs proudly showed off his new love, the iPad and Amazon introduced the Kindle. Before that ebooks and the digital world was creeping into publishing but was only on the fringe of everyone’s thinking. Now we are beginning to watch the slow death of physical books an unthinkable thought when I started in the industry.

Not that change is something I fear (well okay maybe a little). I know it is inevitable. I was around for the birth and near end of life of several devices like fax machines, modems, telephones (!) and the desktop computer. Who ever thought the birth of computers, the internet and mobile devices, would revolutionize and even completely destroy certain industries.

I always had a good instincts when it comes to change. I remember getting into an argument with a teacher in college, who declared that online sales were a fad and that it would eventually disappear as fast as it arrived. I knew that was so false, with increases in the double digits online sales were here to stay. Not that I knew at the time that internet would eventually change the retail world and give birth to whole new industries.

Change is coming for me too. Not sure what I will find on the other side of 40. It took me awhile to realize my dreams at the naive age of 16 would be no where close to reality. Always thought I would have two teenage kids at this point. Instead I have a twelve year old psycho kitty!

I have a few goals that I want to try and complete in my second part of life. I really want to make this the best years of life. I am still trying to untangle ideas and set goals for the next phase. At the moment writing them down makes them feel more real and for now not sure I want to set goals in stone so to speak. At some point I will create a blog post but not quite ready for that yet.

This is the toughest blog post to write since I have neglected it since March! Not that I haven’t tried to write a few but have to say life has been pretty busy. Between work, the camera club and personal stuff not whole lot of time to keep the blog up to date.

Moving forward going to try and post more often but with shorter posts. Going to try and post quick moments in time I want to remember and share. Hopefully this will be easier to achieve now that I have a working computer!

I will begin the new style of posting shortly. I just need to sort out which events to start with first.

Its been a long while since I posted but I have to confess I have been super busy. I spent most of the first two months of 2012 prepping for a wedding shoot. I did it for experience and for good friends.

I never learned so much so fast and although not everything went as planned overall it was a fairly successful day. I rented two lenses for the weekend a 24 – 70mm F2.8 Carl Zeiss and a 70 – 200mm f2.8 monster. To assist with using the telephoto I bought a monopod (which I love!). I shoot Sony so those were my only two choices.

Based on personal style I was less then happy with the 24 – 70 lens. Experience would have helped but I found photos to be soft, not out of focus but clearly a look I am personally not so fond of. The telephoto on the other hand gave crisp, clean photos even at f2.8. Would have used the telephoto more but I was shooting in tight quarters at a hotel. Not a lot of room to use a telephoto at max zoom or use the monopod.

Funny story and with apologies to the rental place I thought there was a problem with the 24 – 70 lens when I was shooting at 30mm (50mm or so on my cropped frame camera). Discovered it was a glitch with the Lightroom 4 beta. For some strange reason after I reopened Lightroom out of focus photos were now fine. Gave me a bit of a panic attack and a whole lot of anxiety. At first it felt like I failed an exam! All is fine lesson learned when using a beta.

Now the fun part editing, although most just need some cropping and not a lot of fixing. Which is great news because in years past editing took more time than shooting!

Quietly sitting her waiting for sleep to come but have lots of thoughts rattling around my brain. It is slowly dawning on me that I have hit a plateau with my photography or maybe better described as a few forks in the road.

My creativity, ideas moving a forward a mile a minute, technical is more of a slow grind. This what is causing some of my frustration. I create good solid photos when I take a deep breathe, calm the nerves and try to stay simple. When I try something a little more outside of the box it gets complicated.

Have been improving get much better shots to work with now. Which then I unleash my creavity using Lightroom, Color Efex Pro 4 and Photshops Elements. I have achieved some success in creating photos more like I invisioned with post processing (see Niagara Cottages) Just wish I could do more in camera.

Struggling greatly with adding flash to my knowledge base but again it is hit and miss. Know my rebel ways are not making this easy, there is one remote trigger for my Sony. Not even sure if it is shipping yet. Can use flash wirelessly but haven’t quite got that managed, Still struggling with TTL, rear & front triggers and adjusting for room lighting.

Know I just need to keep at it but tough when I do a lot of my photography in isolation. Had one great camera club outing to the zoo which I did figure out a few new tricks. Just wish I could afford some of the more expensive workshops but for now way outside my budget.

For now one big goal is to read the stacks of photobooks sitting on my floor. With the hope that something provides an ephinany, new direction or motivates me to try something new.

Will do a more detailed post when I get a little more downtime! For now its off to bed.